stevelevin's Journal

Driver's school recap!
The SF Region of the SCCA runs its "SuperSchool" as a three day event at Thunderhill. So Thursday night we trundled up to get the trailer in place and get the car tech'd for the year (the annual tech for the car had expired in January).

They broke drivers into three groups -- two "fendered" groups (with more Miatas than one could shake a stick at) and one roughly "formula" group although it was split about 60/40 between formula cars and sports racers. A pretty broad speed range amonget the 15 cars in our Group, with a Stohr DSR at the front being driven by someone with some experience and a Formula Vee driven by someone with no real track experience at the rear. The school used just the 1.25 mile "short course" at Thunderhill (turning around at Turn 8 to 8a to 9/15 and onto the front straight).

Friday was just three sessions on track, with very limited passing. From my perspective it was largely uneventful, just working on braking points and stuff where I could, but getting caught behind other cars, some of which were significantly slower.

Saturday we went with open passing, but not racing...which meant, when I out-braked a Club Ford into Turn 8, I got the furled black flag. We did four total sessions on Saturday, and we had some drama off track. The first session of the morning was great, but just as I was heading to grid for the second session, we discovered a leaking coolant hose...so there was frantic jacking and wrenching to fix it. Made it out, and things went well, except that on the last flying lap of the session, I lost the tach going into Turn 6, and as I nailed the throttle to exit Turn 9 onto the front straight, I got....nothing.

I get towed in, and lunch is spent repairing a broken wire off the alternator. Charge the old battery, and I'm in action for the third session uneventfully. The last session of the day, and we do a practice start and race to turn 3, and that goes well, but then, towards the end of the session, the car doesn't come off the turns very well, so I pull it in. Next time we'll make sure we have plenty of fuel onboard.

Sunday is also four sessions...two practices (one with a practice start) and two races. The wind is absolutely howling from the north, so we get big speeds down the front straight, and heading north into turn 6 it's like driving through molasses. There were several "false flags" thrown to make sure we were watching the flag stations. At one point, I tested the cornering limits of my car in Turn 1 and ran wide on the exit, with a sleek "hey ya'll, watch this" drive through the dirt before rejoining the asphalt before turn 2.

My transponder decided to die at this point...sigh...another 300 bucks

So then...the first race. Car won't start...feels like a low battery. Without a lot of time to debug it, we bumpstart the car, and get on the grid. I was lined up 4th, and managed to get into 3rd going into turn 2, where I stayed for a bit before a Formula Ford gridded behind me eventually wailed on by. Things were looking really good, and I had developed quite a lead over the car behind me (unknown to me, there had been a big spin back there that backed everyone up), and then...no power coming down the hill from turn 5. I tucked into the access road and spent the rest of the race watching. Races take forever when you are sitting on an access road.

Once I get towed in, the battery looks...well...sad. Bulged and leaking. Alternator output: 18 volts. So the guess is that when the loose wire was flailing and arcing about, perhaps it ruined the voltage regulator on the alternator. or maybe it just got unhappy. Either way...one more race to go, so we swap in another battery and hope for the best.

The second race was uneventful, although I didn't run as fast as my tach died before the start -- hopefully not killed but just unhappy about the 18 volts. I also tried to keep the rpm down a little to minimize the output from the alternator and try and make the whole 35 minutes, which I did. But my lap times were about 3 seconds off from the morning sessions.

Then they gave us our signed novice logbooks...and voila! I can race!